


feathers and bones

by meteor-sword (vaenire)



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, Kyrna (OC), M/M, Trans Male Character, Young Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-15
Updated: 2020-11-15
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:28:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27573812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vaenire/pseuds/meteor-sword
Summary: “Why don’t you just carve him something? That’s romantic, isn’t it?”“W-what?” Bato sputtered at his friend, who he had been sitting beside in comfortable silence as Hakoda sharpened his spear.“Kyrna,” Hakoda clarified, as if Bato didn’t know who he was talking about. “I mean, you clearly like him. Why don’t you say something?”“Well-- that’s not--” Bato started, but Hakoda laughed, causing Bato to snap his mouth shut and glare at the other boy. “Don’t make fun of me.”
Relationships: Bato/Original Male Character
Comments: 14
Kudos: 45
Collections: Meteor Mutual Club Extended Universe: The Originals





	feathers and bones

“Why don’t you just carve him something? That’s romantic, isn’t it?” 

“W-what?” Bato sputtered at his friend, who he had been sitting beside in comfortable silence as Hakoda sharpened his spear. 

“Kyrna,” Hakoda clarified, as if Bato didn’t know who he was talking about. “I mean, you clearly like him. Why don’t you say something?” 

“Well-- that’s not--” Bato started, but Hakoda laughed, causing Bato to snap his mouth shut and glare at the other boy. “Don’t make fun of me.” 

Hakoda wiped a tear from his eye and set his spear aside before tilting his head to lean on Bato’s thin shoulder for a moment before sitting up again and peering at him. 

“Am I wrong?” 

Bato’s cheeks burned. 

Kyrna and his family, along with a dozen others from his village, had arrived earlier that month following a devastating raid on their village. Chief Khiralok had accepted them as refugees, and the warriors helped in the effort to build new tents as necessary. 

Kyrna had the lightest blue eyes Bato had ever seen, a wide nose that matched his smile, and ribbons of blue the same shade as his eyes braided into his plaited hair. Bato had stuttered when their fathers introduced them to each other, embarrassing himself incredibly. 

“No,” Bato confessed dramatically, deflating against the ice wall at his back. The burning in his face extended to his neck, now, and he refused to let himself tug at the collar of his tunic. They had never talked about the way Bato just smiled and nodded along when Hakoda commented on the girls their age.

“Well, I think he likes you, too,” Hakoda said with a shrug, as if it were nothing. “So you should carve him something.” He went back to sharpening his spear. 

\--

Bato carved a wolf, no more than an inch long, and kept it in his pocket until he had a moment alone with Kyrna. 

Kyrna smiled when he presented it to him, looking at Bato with brows slightly raised in askance. 

“This is for me?” 

Bato could only nod, putting the little bone carving in Kyrna’s hand and closing his fingers around it. He wanted to turn right around and leave, and prevent the humiliation of rejection before Kyrna had a chance. 

He could still shrug it off: giving his new friend a gift wasn’t that obvious of a move. Maybe Hakoda was a genius after all. Yeah, he could let Kyrna thank him to his face and throw away the crappy little carving once Bato left. 

But Kyrna was holding the carving up to his face, studying the painstaking details Bato had included, the texture of the fur and the little nose. It was howling. 

“I love it,” Kyrna said, his grin widening. 

Bato was imagining the way Kyrna leaned forward into Bato’s space; he was mistaken when he thought he saw the other boy bat his lashes. 

“I’m glad,” Bato said, his voice caught in his throat. 

“You’ve been so nice to me since I came here,” he continued, putting a hand on Bato’s forearm. Bato could feel his mitted thumb rubbing the underside of his forearm even through his thick anorak. 

Kyrna squinted up at Bato, playful smile still in place.

“Of course,” Bato managed. 

“Well, I’ll think of a way to repay you,” Kyrna said, slipping the wolf carving into his big sleeve. 

\-- 

Kyrna did not join the warrior practice like the other teenage boy from his tribe had. Bato only noticed this when Hakoda pointed it out, he swore. 

It had taken the other boy a little time before he joined, because he’d gotten a burn on his leg that needed to heal before any strenuous activity. Maybe Kyrna had a similar injury, and was good at hiding it. 

Bato wanted to ask when he saw Kyrna at dinner in the main tent that night, but he was seated with his family too far away. 

Hakoda hunkered down on the pillow beside Bato’s, nudging him with his shoulder as Hakoda’s parents took two more of the pillows around the low table Bato sat at with his mother. 

Hakoda nudged him again with a grin, and Bato rolled his eyes. He knew what the other boy was thinking, and he made a point to not look at Kyrna anymore. Hakoda snickered, and would not stop nudging him every time Bato’s eyes wandered anywhere near the next table over.

For being his best friend, Hakoda could be the absolute worst. 

\--

He didn’t expect the tug on his sleeve as he filed out of the tent after dinner, and certainly didn’t expect to see Kyrna there, shyly beckoning Bato to follow him. He looked around himself, relieved and sad at once to find that Hakoda was nowhere near, not there to nudge him encouragingly, no matter how annoying it was. 

Bato followed him around the back of the tent, through a line of igloos to the eastern gate of the village, and along the outside of the village wall until they came to a snow bank. Bato ignored the way his heart thumped heavier with every step they took away from the rest of the villagers, louder in the quiet of the tundra outside the village walls. 

“I thought of a way to say thank you,” Kyrna said coyly, tossing his braid over his shoulder. 

He smoothed his hand through the air like he was casting a thread onto a loom, and Bato cocked his head at first-- but then he saw the way the snow bank reacting, shuddering before a line of crystallized water flew to meet his hand, a small figure forming. Kyrna snatched it from the air, continuing to pulse his hands around it until presenting the finished piece to Bato. It was a delicate flower with petals of ice, and Bato took it with wonder. 

“You’re… a bender,” he said dumbly. 

Kyrna grinned, deep dimples on his cheeks nearly blinding Bato. 

“Do you like it?” 

He looked down to the little flower in his hand. He held it gingerly in his mitt, not wanting to crush or melt it. The thin petals were dusted with crystals, the stamen and stem elegant as they were delicate. 

“My Mom taught me how to make it. She’s a bender, too.” 

Bato was still marvelling at the flower when Kyrna reached up and trail a hand over the short shaved hair on the side of his head, under his wolf tail before settling on his shoulder. Bato looked at him with wide eyes, and found wide eyes looking at him in return, both asking the same question. 

Almost without a thought, Bato was tilting his chin down toward Kyrna, and Kyrna mirrored his movement, hand sliding to the side of Bato’s neck as he went up on his tiptoes to kiss him. 

Bato could’ve died. He could have been hit with a bolt of lightning and gone to the Spirit World happily. As it were, he put his hands gingerly on Kyrna’s shoulder instead, inelegantly pushing into the kiss until noses bumped cheeks uncomfortably and Kyrna turned his head to the side with a soft laugh. 

Bato wasn’t certain what the feeling was in his ribs-- like a bird trying to escape a snare trap, trying to fly out of his throat. It was horrible and wonderful and it only got more intense when Kyrna leaned back in for another kiss. 

\--

Bato learned many things after that. He learned how to braid all of Kyrna’s thick black hair into one plait. He learned that there was a fishing technique Kyrna had learned from his mother that subtly manipulated currents below a boat, guiding fish gently into the hoop net. 

Bato learned this shortly after learning what Kyrna had  _ actually _ meant when he told their parents they were going to fish. It hadn’t been long after the village slipped from view that Kyrna crawled to the center of the boat’s floor, tugging on Bato’s sleeve for him to mirror his pose on his knees, and kissed him soundly. 

Bato learned to carefully center two people’s weight as they laid back, Kyrna kissing his face wherever he could-- his cheeks, chin, nose, lips. Bato, still clutching his fish spear, grasped the front of Kyrna’s parka with his empty hand as he tried to shift as necessary to keep the sides of the boat from dipping too wildly into the water. Kyrna paid it no mind, tucking himself under Bato’s arm and resting his mitted hand on Bato’s chest. 

Kyrna sighed and settled into the crook of Bato’s arm, peering up at the blue sky-- all they could see from their position. 

At some point Kyrna smiles up at Bato before bringing a mitted hand to his face and biting it, pulling the mitt off with his teeth and dropping it on Bato’s chest before reaching out with his bare hand to Bato’s sleeve and sliding it inside until he found the bare skin of Bato’s wrist, wrapping his fingers around it. He smoothed his thumb over Bato’s pulse, and Bato felt it jump and quicken. 

They laid like that for a long time-- or it felt like a long time, with the way Bato was so aware of the other boy’s every move and breath. Eventually though Kyrna started to shift, pulling away his hand and replacing his mitt, and pushing himself up to peer down at Bato. 

“I suppose we should get some fish, then,” he said with a grin, “Before anyone comes looking for us.” 

Bato returned the smile sheepishly. “I suppose you’re right.” 

\--

The first raid that Bato was old enough to fight in came months later. Kyrna fought, too, and Bato did not see when the raiders were able to throw a net over him, drag him off his balance and onto one of their big, black ships. Kyrna’s mother saw, though, and she pursued with a frightful display of bending. She, too, was no match for the sheer number of firebenders. 

\--

Hakoda found Bato after, like he always did. 

He sat beside Bato where he was curled just outside the village gate, arms wrapped around his knees. He wasn’t crying, hadn’t cried, wasn’t going to cry. 

Besides, Bato had no right to cry. Seeing Kyrna’s father after the silhouettes of Fire Nation ships disappeared into the mist-- after the man lost his village and his son and his wife-- still holding himself together despite the shadow of agony on his face had shocked Bato, had overwhelmed him. He couldn’t shake the memory of the man’s face as he went home, checked on his own parents, looked over his gear to ensure it hadn’t been too damaged, had taken off his spearpoint and replaced it with one he had already fashioned for his inevitable need. His hands didn’t even tremble until he had thrown himself into his bedroll, shoving his hands under his pillow and finding a delicate flower there. 

That’s when Bato rushed out of his family’s igloo, overwhelmed with the proximity with all the people around him, unable to express his loss truthfully to anyone. 

Anyone but Hakoda, who nudged his knee against Bato’s gently, untying an animal skin bag to silently offer him a bit of his seal jerky. 

The knots in his stomach churned at the smell of the meat, and he turned his head away. 

The bird in his chest fluttered weakly, no longer trying to break free of his ribs-- rather, it struggled for air. It was dying, and Bato would just have to live with that. 

Hakoda leaned his head on Bato’s shoulder, his cheek squishing against the boniness there. 

**Author's Note:**

> there's probably more about kyrna forthcoming at some point :) originally made for a bakoda fleet week 2020 fic that made me too sad to finish <3 
> 
> hit me up at [ meteor-sword ](https://meteor-sword.tumblr.com)on tumblr


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